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The Crosswind
Correction
Off i c ia l mon th ly p ub l i ca t i on o f EAA Cha p te r 1 23 2 In c lud i ng GF CA News
April 2014
Volume 2, Issue 4 March Meeting-Steve Silver, U-2 Pilot
As we “went to press” on last month’s edi-
tion (pushed the “send” button on my
email), I rushed to drop in a short article on
our expected presentation for the March
meeting, which was scheduled at that point
to be Phil Simon and some great infor-
mation and videos on the Fairey Swordfish,
nicknamed the “Stringbag”. At the last mi-
nute, however, Phil was able to persuade
his friend and former “student” (Phil was his
line instructor pilot at United at one time)
Steve Silver, a former U-2 pilot, to speak.
It turns out that Steve had also done quite
a few formal briefings on this subject, and
he not only gave a great overview of U-2
operations but also of aerial reconnais-
sance as a whole, with a slide show that
was originally created for his professional
briefings.
First of all, you notice that Steve looks like
you’d expect a U-2 pilot look. I know,
we’ve all seen fighter pilots that in real life
look like the guy you’d meet in line at the
grocery store, but Steve actually looks the
part. That said, Steve’s description of typi-
cal missions made them seem more like
endeavors in endurance rather than some
wild-eyed, hair on fire, roller coaster ride.
Sure, much of a typical mission is spent
right up in the dark corner of the U-2s per-
formance envelope, where the difference
between cruise speed and a high altitude
stall is only about 3 knots, but at that point
you’re more a systems monitor as the air-
craft is on autopilot for much of that time.
The U-2 is a single seat aircraft as used for
operational missions, and the new pilot
usually gets only four orientation flights in
a two seat trainer before being declared
fully “operational”. Steve pointed out that
after an initial climb rate of 8,000 feet/
minute (with no afterburner) the U-2 is
hand flown to 60,000 feet, at which point
the autopilot is switched on. The U-2 in
mission profile is always in climbing mode;
the throttle is set and climb will ensue as
fuel is gradually burned off, and it will
max out at 70,000 feet. At that altitude
the sky is black above you and you can
definitely see the curvature of the Earth.
Prior to a mission the pilot will sit in the
ready room in his pressure suit and
breathe pure oxygen for an hour to pre-
vent contracting the “bends” caused by the
formation of hydrogen bubbles in the
blood while climbing to altitude. The pure
oxygen purges the nitrogen from the
bloodstream. The cockpit itself is pressur-
ized to 35,000 feet, and while the pilot’s
suit is not pressurized routinely, it is com-
pletely sealed and the helmet’s faceplate
is fully in place as the suit will pressurize
immediately should there be any reduction
in cabin pressure. Suffice it to say that it
would be disastrous should that happen,
and in fact one U-2 pilot was lost when his
cockpit lost pressurization and his face-
plate was open.
Of course, this makes eating and scratching
your nose problematic, and Steve showed
and described how both are done (think
food in a toothpaste tube that can be in-
gested by straw through a port in the hel-
met).
When the time comes to land the U-2 sur-
prisingly has a 15 knot crosswind
The “Crosswind Drift” Newsletter-EAA Chapter 1232 April 2014 Page 2
capability, although the pilot has to rely
heavily on input from the chase car be-
cause of the single sailplane-like landing
wheel and the fact that the cockpit configu-
ration makes it tough to judge height
above the runway. With all that wing area
and overall light weight at the end of a
mission the U-2 will land at ultralight-like
speeds. In fact, the pilot can fly the wing
all the way down to 10 knots, and with a
15 knot headwind it’s possible for the
ground crew to walk up and re-insert the
wingtip pogo wheels while the pilot keeps
the wings level.
Over the years Steve has added infor-
mation to his briefing regarding the air-
craft that is being touted as the U-2’s re-
placement; the Global Hawk. This infor-
mation is especially pertinent now, as the
administration just released it’s budget
proposal for FY2015 that would remove
the U-2 from service. It’s possible that this
proposal can be removed from the budget
and the U-2 could continue to fly missions-
that’s happened before-and Steve feels it’s
important to note some of the differences
between the mission capabilities of the two
aircraft.
First, while the Global Hawk can fly mis-
sions of up to 36 hours, it can only reach
60,000 feet and has a payload limited to
2,000 lbs. This limits the amount and types
of equipment it can carry, namely to digital
photographic equipment (compared to the
multitude of electronic listening and coun-
termeasure equipment that can be carried
by the U-2, along with multiple very high
resolution optical cameras). Further, the
Global Hawk requires two sets of ground
crews; one mission control element, usually
in a trailer at Beale AFB in Marysville mon-
itoring the mostly autonomous flight via
computer screen, keyboard and mouse
(there’s not even a joystick!), and a second
in-theatre landing and recovery element
with it’s own set of operators.
Flights of the Global Hawk are a pre-
programmed dance of GPS coordinates,
linked together in modules starting with
taxi, takeoff/aborted takeoff, the mission
itself, return to landing area, pattern, land-
ing and taxi back/shutdown. Steve re-
ferred to this process as “stitching”, noting
that changes to the Hawk’s flight plan can
easily be “stitched” into the pre-set pro-
gression. He also noted that the Hawk’s
operators only have a limited view (“soda
straw) video view forward for landing.
The sensor operators can get a snippet of
what the Hawk’s cameras are seeing in
real-time, and the flight operator can stitch
in a change to re-direct the aircraft if de-
sired or necessary. No human is put at risk,
but the ability to have human intelligence
“on-site” is lost, as well. So, while technolo-
gy has made it possible to fly reconnais-
sance missions on the other side of the
world from an office chair in California or
Arizona, it currently not possible to repli-
cate all the capabilities that the U-2 has
provided for over 50 years.
Steve Silver, U-2 Pilot (continued)
April Meeting-Phil Simon Fairly Swordfish
Join us this coming Tuesday evening, April
8, for our April chapter meeting where our
speaker will be our own Phil Simon. Phil has
put together an interesting presentation on
the “Stringbag”, the Fairey Swordfish. The
Swordfish was a 1930’s-era biplane tor-
pedo bomber that, since it was in the RAF’s
depleted inventory at the start of WWII,
saw significant action throughout the war.
Phil’s presentation covers many of these
actions, including the attack that disabled
the German battleship Bismark, and videos
of it operating off of merchant ships con-
verted to use as “aircraft carriers. As you
might imagine, with ship’s speed of 20
knots into a wind of 20-30 knots would
result in a fairly short takeoff run, and
landings that could be “arrested” by deck-
hands.
There will be pizza/salad/soft drinks for a
small fee at 6:30, with the meeting at 7:00.
The “Crosswind Drift” Newsletter-EAA Chapter 1232 April 2014 Page 3
DRAFT IDEAS FOR A CHAPTER LOGO
(email your own version, comments/suggestions/submissions to eaa1232@gmail.com)
A B C
D E F
Gnoss Field/Marin County Airport Open House (the first in a series of low key, inside-the-fence events for Marin residents, Gnoss Field tenants and pilots from all over)
Saturday, April 12 11a.m. to 2 p.m. North Ramp
-Free BBQ (while it lasts)
-Variety of Display Aircraft
-Young Eagle flights
-Aeromodelling demos
-Fly-bys
Contact Ken Mercer at mercer.k@comcast.net with questions or if you’d like to volunteer to help out
The “Crosswind Drift” Newsletter-EAA Chapter 1232 April 2014 Page 4
Received this great image via e-mail from Ernie Ganas…(can you imagine the vortices from the 380?)
...and thought it might be interesting to add the prototype Sub-Sonex jet for perspective:
Volume 2, Issue 4 Page 5
CALENDAR
April 8 EAA Chapter 1232 monthly meeting, C.A.P. trailer Gnoss Field, dinner 6:30, program 7:00. This month Phil Simon will hi-
light the history of the Fairey Swordfish biplane, with lots of good video.
April 12 Airport Open House, North Ramp Gnoss Field, 11 a.m.-2 p.m. free BBQ (while it lasts!), planes, a few Young Eagles
The “Crosswind Drift” Newsletter-EAA Chapter 1232 April 2014 Page 6
An All-Round Nice Guy (via John Lannom)
Via e-mail from John Lannom:
I forwarded the note on the Gnoss Field spin
training to a friend in Australia. He re-
sponded with the Kai Tak article which thou
might find interesting. j
“In the days when Kai Tak airport was
operating it was the base for the Hong
Kong Flying Club, so being in the same
environment as the big aircraft was a nor-
mal part of light aircraft flying. However,
the introduction of the Boeing 747 in 1971
changed things somewhat. A separation of
about two minutes between one of our
aircraft and a preceding jet had previous-
ly been considered adequate, but we were
soon to find out the hard way that the
wake turbulence behind the Jumbos was
quite a different matter from that of the
smaller jets.
One afternoon our Chipmunk, flown by a
very experienced Auxiliary Air Force pilot,
was on finals about four miles behind a
747 but, of course, on steeper approach
path. All was well until about twenty feet
above the runway when the Chippie ran
into one of the vortices left behind by the
big jet. This had been drifted across into
the centre of the runway by a light cross-
wind. The aircraft rolled uncontrollably,
one wing tip touched the ground and the
aircraft cart-wheeled down the runway. In
the process both wings folded back, the
engine was torn from its mounting and the
fuselage broke behind the cockpit. Fire
engines and the ambulance were soon on
the scene. but amazingly the occupants
were unhurt, showing,
a) the value of having a good four-
point harness, and
b) the desirability of dissipating your
energy over some distance rather than
coming to a sudden stop.
After this calamity we made a practice,
even with the greater separation time, of
ensuring that we touched well down be-
yond the point where the tyre smoke from
preceding heavy aircraft was seen. [This
indicates where the aircraft has touched
down and from this point onwards, as it
slows and the nose is lowered, the wake
turbulence diminishes rapidly].
With the Chipmunk gone, the club began
looking for a replacement. The Singapore
Flying Club had a Beagle Pup 150 for sale
and a deal was done. There remained the
question of getting the aircraft to Hong
Kong and after a discussion over the phone
it was agreed that two of their members
would fly it up. A direct flight was not
possible, so the route they would take
would be from Singapore to Kuching in
East Malaysia, then Kota Kinabalu, next,
across to Zamboanga in Mindanao, up to
Manilla, then finally across the China Sea
to Hong Kong. The total distance was
about 5,200 kilometres, the last leg being
1,100 kilometres over water and there-
fore, in a small single-engined aeroplane,
the one likely to be the most nerve wrack-
ing.
A ferry tank was fitted, flight plans were
duly deposited with the authorities con-
cerned and approvals received. So far so
good! All went well until the plane landed
in Zamboanga. At this stage I should men-
tion that unbeknown to our two pilots, Min-
danao was experiencing an armed insur-
rection by Islamic militants, in fact I believe
it still is. On taxiing to the terminal the
aircraft was surrounded by armed troops
and the pilots placed under arrest. The
troops were unimpressed by flight plans
and had no intention of letting the pilots
contact Manilla. However, as the pilots
were trying to convince the soldiers that
they were not connected with the rebels an
important looking person in a flying suit
and with lots of gold braid arrived on the
scene to find out what was going on. The
situation was explained to him and he in
turn spoke to the troops who withdrew ra-
ther gracelessly.
The new arrival apologised for the incon-
venience that had been caused, and to
make up for this he offered accommoda-
tion to the two pilots for their overnight
stay. This was gratefully accepted and
they were whisked away in a chauffeur-
driven limousine to a large mansion. Then
after a shower and a shave they were
taken out to dinner. But that wasn’t the end
of the evening’s events. Instead of return-
ing for a good night’s sleep, they found
themselves inducted as judges at the Miss
Mindanao beauty contest, a task which
they willingly undertook, though I might
add that the entrants, being good Muslim
girls, wore modest sarongs, not bikinis.
The following morning they were taken to
the airport to find that the Beagle had
already been washed and re-fuelled
ready for the next leg of the journey.
Their host was there to see them off, and
as a parting gesture he gave them his busi-
ness card which, he said, would be helpful
if they had any further problems. I can’t
remember the name on the card, but it
Hotel Golf Echo, with the offending Jumbo
in the background.
Volume 2, Issue 4 Page 7
Web Gems-This Month’s Best (if clicking these links doesn’t work copy/paste them into your browser’s address window)
Brussels Air Museum (courtesy John Lannom). Amazing. http://www.sbap.be/museum/brussels/
brussels.htm
Full Immersion Flying (also from John): http://player.vimeo.com/video/65863381
Reno Gold Race 2013, from cockpit of Steve Hinton’s Voodoo: http://vimeo.com/75721498
Irish Jig at Birmingham, GB http://youtu.be/7P9OAng32F0 you may have seen this, but it’s still some pretty incredible footwork
Here’s some more impressive footwork-we’ll be doing this during our next meeting: http://
youtu.be/PZt4ONIzH7Y
Dynon Skyview Touch http://youtu.be/648Ah_bHLg0
Hold onto your GoPro if you’re going to lean out of the airplane: http://youtu.be/QrxPuk0JefA
You’ve seen the Flightaware version of U.S. air traffic, here’s the European version:
http://www.flyingmag.com/pilots-places/pilots-adventures-more/mesmerizing-video-tracks-flights?cmpid=enews031814&spPodID=030&spMailingID=20527870&spUserID=NDc4NjI2OTgyOQS2&spJobID=280972195&spReportId=MjgwOTcyMTk1S0
Our own Pat Scanlon, from a nicely-done promotional video: http://youtu.be/x2i5x4EfVXs
Blakesburg Antique flyin http://photos.antiqueairfield.com/Blakesburg-2013-Jonathan/i-VWDHGnj
An All-Round Nice Guy, (continued)
went on to proclaim that he was:
Well, certainly the last claim proved to be
true. However, they didn’t have to put his
card to the test as they had no further trou-
ble while in the Philippines.
Their assessment of the Manilla to Hong
Kong leg turned out to be correct. They
said that they listened to every beat of the
engine on the five and a half hours crossing
of the China Sea, and were very relieved
when Kai Tak hove into sight.
After a few days with us in Hong Kong, the
ferry pilots returned to Singapore on a
much less eventful flight with Cathay Pacif-
ic. As for the Beagle Pup, we found that it
was an absolutely delightful aircraft to fly
and it served us well for several years until
one day some idiot tried to fly up a valley
whose slope was steeper than the climb
rate of the Pup! But that is another story.
It was a pity that Singapore didn’t have
another Beagle to sell so that someone else
could have had a similar adventure.
The “Crosswind Drift” Newsletter-EAA Chapter 1232 April 2014 Page 8
Gnoss Field Community Association News
AWOS
Good news! Airport Manager Dan Jensen
and his new DPW supervisor, Eric Steger,
met with the FAA last month who confirmed
that the funds for the replacement of the
AWOS unit at Gnoss (which has been inop-
erative on and off for two years now) will
be released late March/early April. Work
will likely begin on that unit shortly thereaf-
ter. Funds will also be made available to
repair taxiways and ramp areas, and
DPW’s Road Division is likely to start that
work early this summer. More details to
come.
Airport Webcams
We thought it might be interesting to have
a webcam at the airport available online
where pilots could check the visibility or just
see what’s going on. In researching a loca-
tion to place this webcam we found that the
airport already has a system of security
cameras that they are in the process of
upgrading. Dan has agreed to work with
the vendor to provide a link to those cam-
eras once they’re up and running. Again,
we’ll have more details for you as they
become available.
New Website
GFCA member Tom Schiff has designed
and authored an updated website which is
not only cleaner and up-to-date but also
allows for easy addition of new features.
Tom is working on adding a calendar sec-
tion, and there will be other new features
to come as well. In keeping with our desire
to refer to Gnoss Field as the Marin County
Airport the web address for the new site is
www.marincountyairport.org , but the old
address of www.gnossfield.org will redirect
you to the new site, as well. Take a look at
the site and see what you think, and let us
know what features, links, items you’d like
to have on this site to make it useful to you.
Designator Change?
Along those lines, since it’s already known
as Marin County Airport (see the sign as
you turn on Binford) and since we really
want to emphasize it is Marin County’s air-
port, we’ve asked Dan Jensen to look into
changing the designator to “KMCA”, as
that designator is currently available and
would seem to make more sense than
“KDVO”. Here’s our first trivia question for
the new newsletter: Where does the
“DVO” come from?
GFCA Board Elections/Invitation
Not many people come to GFCA’s Board
meetings, and one of the reasons we start-
ed this newsletter was to better communi-
cate just what the Board’s working on. Elec-
tions for this year’s Board will be held in
June, and we always welcome fresh ideas
and new energy. If you’d like to know more
about Board operations or might be inter-
esting in serving on the Board contact
Board President Mark Sheron at
sheron@novato.net The next meeting will
be on Wednesday, April 16 at 7:00 in the
Pilot’s Lounge.
Airport Plan
At the request of Supervisor Judy Arnold,
DPW and the Airport Commission will be
holding a series of meetings to seek input
on future plans for the airport. The format
and dates/times/locations of these meet-
ings is likely to be announced in the next
month or so, so watch this newsletter and
the GFCA website for details.
Runway Extension Next Steps
DPW also advised that the Board of Su-
pervisors will be holding a Merits hearing
this summer, and the outcome of this hear-
ing will determine the future of the runway
extension project. The format of this hear-
ing will be much like the EIR approval hear-
ing, with lots of time for public input.
Corrections from March Newsletter
In our article about Gnoss Field where we
listed flight schools on the field, Sea and
Sky never actually did business at Gnoss,
and we completely forgot to list Training
Squadron! Mea culpa!
Volume 2, Issue 4 Page 9
Gnoss Field Community Association News
By Jamie Cavanaugh
Outdoor weddings have a tent or a barn
to cover rain & other inclemencies, but you
can’t cover an airport. And it rained… and
it rained. As in any calamity, we went from
unbelief to denial to anger and finally to
resolve. Flying is all about weather so why
shouldn't the pilot’s park get some instru-
ment flight conditions? Why? Because this
wedding has been 2 years in planning, is
as rare as upside down Jenny stamps and,
dangit, we just don’t deserve rain on our
precious parade.
But rain we got. It collected in puddles and
on wipers. It cleaned off our cars and our
airplanes. It washed out gutters and
streamed beside roads. And still it kept
coming. A September air show in Virginia
or Ohio or Florida would have a rain poli-
cy written on the ticket, but not here, not in
California. Steve Knecht, our event captain,
looked up precip records -just to shake a
fist at God- going back to 1960, as far as
records go for Novato, and learned that in
the past 53 years it has never -ever-
rained on September 21st.
A glance to faces showed determination all
around: each eye to the sky, trying to han-
dle the undoing peacefully, just like we
train for cockpit emergencies- keep flying
the plane, work with what you can do, ex-
pect a window of opportunity, never aban-
don yourself or your ship. All that was hum-
ming along with the loosening earth and
sudden lakes of water.
And time… we all knew the day could be
saved if we just had enough time for these
freak cells to pass over and let the natural
late summer brilliance shine down, as i fi-
nally did.
...we are no less
joined with our fly-
ing community, our
planes and the air-
port we call home...
We can say it's not fair, and we'd be right.
Like Jack Benny said when he won an Os-
car: "I don't deserve this award, but I have
arthritis and I don't deserve that ei-
ther.“ We're nice people, we just wanted
to have everybody visit us on this one day.
Is that so wrong? Who did we piss-off?
Who didn't get mentioned in our prayers?
WHY DID IT RAIN ON SATURDAY?
To borrow the wedding simile one more
time - as important as is a wedding, it is
nothing compared to the desire to be mar-
ried, to the words and deeds of love that
bring together the intended. And by as
much is our intention greater than the flood
that received it. Today, without the cere-
mony of support and celebration that was
planned, we are no less joined with our
flying community, our planes and the air-
port we call home. We are no less grateful
to the DPW and staff, to Judy Arnold and
constituents, to the thousands before us who
made possible our mission, who gifted us
this great resource of American flight.
Wings Over Marin was to be a day of
sharing our home, our wealth, our common
cause with everyone in the shire. That never
changed.
Pilot gatherings are infrequent, WOM is
exceptional: before 2010 (the 50th Anni-
versary of MCA) there have been only two
comparable events, meaning we average
one open house every 16 years. An FAA
representative told Mark our operation
was “perfect." We did everything right -
except the WX. That's not nothing. Planning
matters, showing up matters, putting on a
hat and taking your station at the gate
matters.
Maybe we just consider that a practice run.
And next time... there will be a next time...
we can truly say you ain't seen nothin' yet!
Some Thoughts Looking Back on Wings Over Marin II…
Ken Mercer, President/Young Eagles
Coordinator 415-378-8504
Phil Simon, Vice-President 415454-5496
Tom Schiff, Secr./Treasurer 415-515-6630
www.1232.eaachapter.org
www.facebook.com/EAA1232
eaa1232@gmail.com
San Francisco and North Bay California
EAA Chapter 1232-Novato, Ca Our monthly membership meetings are held the second Tuesday evening of each month (except
December), starting with dinner at 6:30 and followed by the main presentation(s) at 7:00. Our hosts are
the Novato Squadron of the Civil Air Patrol who graciously allow us to use their facility at 400 Airport
Boulevard, Gnoss Field, in northern Novato (in the south parking lot). Here’s a crude map, but please
do contact one of our officers for more information and/or directions:
In addition to our regular monthly evening meetings, many of us meet for lunch at noon every Thursday
at The Club restaurant at McGinnis Park Golf Course on Smith Ranch Road in San Rafael. The hostess on
duty can direct you to our “regular” room but again, please contact one of our officers for better
directions.
Membership is $25/yr. and is open to anyone-contact any of our officers (above, left) for details!
From Neil Cormia, who’s been working on a Onex (with Rich Gaines and Tom Ryan) and updating his RV-6:
Nice note in the latest newsletter about the Onex. I keep forgetting I did all the wiring. It's still a fraction of the work that went into
the mechanicals on the plane but it has been a big job! I just added ADS-B out to the RV-6 and am wrapping that up once I get a
fresh pitot/static/xponder cert from Jeff today. One more high tech plane takes (back) to the skies. I have not forgotten you'd like me
to speak about "How NOT to build an experimental Panel". We now have a roof leak (and damage) at Chez Cormier so it might be a
while before I get time to prepare a good PPT but I WILL do it, if only to prevent others from making the mistakes I have.
Here's the current RV-6 functional panel diagram:
Project Update/Preview of a Future Presentation: Neil Cormia-Panels for Experimentals
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